22 S/L/LR Rifles?

No.

It's not useful.

gregp74 said:

.... I don't think I've seen a box of 22 shorts (or longs for that matter) since about 2012.

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I recall seeing boxes of 22 shorts on shelves that were bare of everything else.

Say what you will. My next 22 rifle is going to be a Henry Frontier threaded. Can run shorts as well as long rifles for my supressor. 22 short ammo was common around these parts before the sheeple panicked!!

I can't remember the last time I saw longs. Probably back in the 1970's. 22 shorts turn up occasionally. I bought some recently to run through my Winchester 94-22 and Marlin 39's.

I bought a couple hundred longs during the great 22 shortage specifically because I have an old S/L/SR 22. I love mine, it belonged to my grandfather who bought it sometime in the 30's. Dead nuts accurate and with shorts holds something like 20 in the tube.

All of them are available on the shelf here, But if I'm going to run less than a 22 long rifle, I'll just switch to an airgun.

I shoot a lot of shorts. It's relevant . darn near doubles capacity for tube fed rifles and kills vermin and soup cans just as well as the lr

I've got at bunch of shorts on hand. Have a rifle from dad's dad that is .22 short only, and one from mom's dad that shots all three.

I regularly saw 22 shorts before all of this craziness started. I think at some point they will become easier to find again.

Remington's 550-1 and 552 speedmaster, browning bl-22, ruger single six.....are the guns of my youth.

I shot alot of shorts back in the seventies. They were cheaper than long rifles back then.

I still have a few hundred rounds on the shelf, buti agree with @LoonWulf . I have lately discovered 1000fps .22 air rifle. It has taken the place of some of my .22 cartridge gun shooting.

Sure it,s useful if you happen to get some shorts or longs. But a modern gun thats only marked .22LR will still fire the others. It may not cycle them. Semi autos mainly but some will cycle with Hivel shorts depending on model. Some of my old Mossberg tube fed bolt actions will hold 30 shorts.

Yes there useful like others said shorts or longs may have been the only 22 on some sheves. I use a lot of cci longs I happen to get during the last big 22 shortage. Out of my old Remington 33 there nearly quite. The gun Ben shoots the 60gr ammo very well.

my Rossi 62 gets some use as well, you can put a lot of shorts in that mag tube.

CCI 22 CB shorts and longs, Aguila Super Colibres, RWS BB and CB caps, CCI Stinger.... I shoot lots of non-long rifle case length "22's".

I did need to modify a couple of magazines to insure reliable feeding, and the chambers get brass brushed regularly.

In my youth I had a Colt Police Positive 22WRF that shot it all, from 22Short to 22WMR, very often in the same cylinder!

LoonWulf said:

All of them are available on the shelf here, But if I'm going to run less than a 22 long rifle, I'll just switch to an airgun.

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I run "less" than long rifles, so I DON'T HAVE to screw around with an airgun!!

And, ALL the less than long rifles run perfectly through my Henry lever 22!

DM

Any gun that’ll chamber and fire multiple cartridges like .22 short, long & long rifle offers the owner options beyond just the bullet weight and style of the LR rounds.... much like the various longs, specials and magnums do.

Are the smaller rounds popular? Not particularly. But shorts certainly can be found if you look for them.

My Henry levers and Rem 541 handle S,L & LR, I’ll pop a short in the 541 every once in a while to plunk a raiding rabbit.

Stay safe.

As mentioned they were available after most everything else was gone.
Not usually my first choice but I have a few bricks of various shorts , mostly cci short hp that I’ll get around to shooting squirrels and rabbits with one of these days.
I like the fact that my Remington 34 fits 22 rounds of short in the tube.

Bwana John said:

CCI 22 CB shorts and longs, Aguila Super Colibres, RWS BB and CB caps, CCI Stinger.... I shoot lots of non-long rifle case length "22's".

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Bwana makes a valid point, as did those who mentioned the advantage of having a wider availability of choices in times of scarcity. That may be the remaining appeal of the Short today, plus the need for fodder for older guns chambered in .22 Short exclusively. At one time there was a niche market for match .22 Shorts for rapid fire pistol disciplines, but I don't know whether that's still the case -- I remember the Walther OSP and other high-end target autopistols were made specifically for .22 Short. Shorts were also the mainstay of autoloading shooting gallery rifles, such as the Remington 24 Short.



Back in ancient times (aka my father's youth), .22 Shorts were popular because, since the case used less material than LR, it was cheaper to manufacture and sold for a slightly lower price. They were still the standby in my own youth (1960s) for gallery rifles for this same reason. My strong suspicion was that as they lost ground in general popularity, they became more of a speciality ammo and lost any price advantage -- manufacturing cost in terms of machine time is effectively the same as .22 LR cartridges.

George Frost's book Ammunition Making has a lot of inside dope on the business of manufacturing .22 rimfire ammunition.

https://archive.org/details/AmmunitionMakingNRAByG.Frost1990

I used to shoot .22 CB Caps pretty regularly when I was trying to control ground squirrels on an almond orchard in the 1980s, but these days I prefer CB Longs so I don't need to scrub my chamber so thoroughly afterwards.

BTW, my first firearm, a Marlin-Glenfield M25 bolt action magazine rifle, could feed Shorts, Longs and LR equally well from the same box magazine, which I always thought was a pretty neat trick.

DM~ said:

I run "less" than long rifles, so I DON'T HAVE to screw around with an airgun!!

And, ALL the less than long rifles run perfectly through my Henry lever 22!

DM

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My Mossberg 802 would actually load shorts from the mag if I kept it to 5 rounds or less, and every bolt gun I've had ran longs.
Ive shot quite a few of the shorter shell just out of curiosity, but for what I do, I just don't find any utility in them.
For pest around the house my qb78 that stays charged can deliver 16 gr pellets at 700fps (or heavier at the same speed depending on the tune), which is about what a cb cap will shoot. The longs offer a 30gr bullet at the same speed, but there's nothing I need the extra penetration for. My airguns are also significantly quieter than even a long-barreled .22 using anything but a cb cap or colibri.
I honestly feel the same way about the hypers. If I need/want more than 1250 from a 40gr lead round nose, ill break out a larger cartridge (in my case it will ALSO be an airgun as the next step, tho for distance and fun im still trying to get another 17hmr).

Im also not knocking it.

If someone WANTS to shoot the same gun for everything from mice to ....what ever you consider a .22 topping out at.... then having a selection of ammo, and a gun that can run it is super cool. If all you can get on the shelf is one of the shorter rounds, then I can also totally get wanting the functionality of using what ever you can get ahold of.

As long as the .22 is accurate and reliable, who cares?

Versatility where I live, here in the Arctic pays off now and then....you NEVER know what kinda ammo is gonna show up.

I have a 410 "partner" from H&R that shoots .410 shot shells, .44magnum, .45 Colt, .444 Marlin, .45/70 and .44 Russian that I have personally shot through that gun.
CCI still makes .22short, and I have a carton of 1930's .22 winchester, that will fit in a .22 magnum, and not split the case wall like a .22lr fired in a Magnum.
For real world use, I have a Rem 870 12 gauge Magnum 3-1/2 inch, and it eats the 3 inch and 2-3/4, and when the rare 3-1/2 shows up, they guys I hunt with give em to me , indeed.